The Rangers and Islanders square off again tonight following a game that provoked fights on the ice, and debates in the blogging world. Over the last 4 days, points have been made here by both Rangers and Islanders bloggers, myself included. Some were very valid, including several in the last Islanders’ post by Frank. And while it got a little heated with Rob, he also has some points that I agree with. Both also said some things that I disagree with, but hey, I’m a Rangers fan, they’re Islanders fans, it’s going to happen. I welcome the healthy debate.

Moving on from that, tonight’s game will most likely not have quite so much explosiveness as Monday’s game. Chris Simon and Rick DiPietro will not dress tonight for the Islanders, and Avery will not dress, and Montoya is reserved for backup duties for the Rangers. Don’t expect nothing to happen, however, as it is still Rangers v. Islanders and players like Sutton, Witt, Brennen, Orr, Hollweg and Strudwick are all expected in the lineup. Personally, I think someone owes Sutton a big, crushing hit (legal of course) for his elbow to Callahan, but that’s just me.

For the Rangers faithful out there, Jaromir Jagr is nursing a hip flexor, and will not skate tonight, but is probable for tomorrow’s preseason finale against Philly. Sean Avery is also less than 100% with a minor groin injury. Steve Valiquette’s chances at making the team are also dwindling as he is still recovering from a cut on his hand suffered when he was altering his goalie pads. Thanks to Sam Weinman, we know that Mara and Pock will not be skating tonight on defense, and that the third pairing will be Staal and Strudwick. Artem Anisimov will not skate, but Dubinski will. Lundqvist is penciled in to play the entire game.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back tonight with some updates on the game. For those in the New York area, the game is on MSG at 7pm. Hopefully tonight’s discussions of the game are a lot more civil than the last few days’.

I know I am a little late coming to the aid of my fellow Islander fan Rob on the fracas between the Islanders and Rangers the other night but I will try to give some of my own “insight” if you will. First and foremost, why was Chris Simon playing? Granted I am an Islanders fan but I don’t see how a suspended player, especially one who was suspended for swinging their stick like Simon did, is allowed to play pre-season games let alone a game with a heated rival.

And I get it Hollweg “plays on the edge,” yadda, yadda, yadda. Obviously somewhere along the line Hollweg upset Simon enough that every game Simon will have a vendetta against him and that folks is hockey, even more so in what creates a heated hockey rivalry. But here is the thing, if Hollweg wants to be an energy guy and throw his body around he is going to need to be accountable and defend himself when another team’s enforcer steps in with the proverbial enough is enough hand-to-hand combat routine.

The issue here is between Chris Simon and Ryan Hollweg, not Colton Orr, and certainly not Jason Strudwick. From the video it looks as if Hollweg and Simon were paired off and Simon had a slight advantage in the 1 round bout. Why Jason Strudwick felt the need to get involved is beyond me. Hollweg is a big boy who played Major Junior so I am sure he knows about fisticuffs, Strudwick should’ve let the two fine gentlemen have at it.

And please Jeremy Colliton, take off your skirt next time everyone pairs up on the ice, you embarrassed Islander fans during the melee. The least Colliton could’ve done to prevent Strudwick from getting involved was drop his gloves and try to hold back his man. Ricky D. was doing the right thing to help out his guy when Strudwick was trying to play “Peace Maker” and hold back Simon’s arms so Hollweg could get a few shots in, now that was not a “punk” move at all.

Also, lets not forget a little trip down memory lane where Dan Cloutier “disrespected” Tommy Salo while punching him when he was defenseless on the ice, I am sure Ranger fans weren’t rooting for an injury there Mr. Kovy274Hart. Montoya got what was coming to him, he was not baited into anything. Not to mention the fact, the Referees could’ve easily stepped in when the 2 netminders were squaring up.

I’ve looked at the tape and I believe I’ve looked at it objectively as well. Like I said in the beginning Simon had no right playing in this game and this could have been avoided or at least prevented until Simon’s suspension is over. Strudwick was wrong for trying to get to Simon, Ricky D. was right in standing up for his teammate, and Jeremy Colliton is a little girl. So put on the foil and think Eddie shore, because I doubt we’ve seen the last of this bad blood.

Well - Kovy’s subjectively assumptive interpretation of my previous statements, while totally ignoring the truth continues to muddy the Chris Simon situation.

Kovy states “Not from behind as you claimed countless times as if to justify the ridiculous retaliation if you can actually call it that.”

I have never tried to justify Simon’s infraction against Hollweg and thought the action was abominable, and have said so. But if you objectively look at Hollweg’s boarding against Simon and all of Hollweg’s continuous cheap shots from behind, it is easy to see who the dirtier player is.

And your claim that Simon shouldn’t have played is ridiculous. He is getting ready for the season and as he has to sit out 5 more regular season games, of course he needs pre-season playing time. Hollweg played, right? If you watched the game, you’ll see that the Rangers actually incited the riot. But, I understand your lack of objectivity and desire to stick up for your goons just because of the color jersey he wears.

Well, I guess this will go on and on as the Rags bloggers continue to attempt to re-write history and paint Hollweg as a character guy. Whatever.

Just for our Islander blogger Rob who is here to give his slant on things, neither myself nor Lenny is debating the fact that Ryan Hollweg plays the game on the edge and sometimes catches guys from behind.

The fourth line energizer plays the game hard and is out there throwing his body around to inject energy. Not much different from most fourth liners with little skill. There have been instances where I’ve taken him to task for some undisciplined penalties. Because when you play that kind of aggressive physical game, you have to play it smart and not wind up in the box for boarding costing your team.

I feel where we differ on the whole Hollweg-Chris Simon saga is that the Ranger side feels the winger caught Simon from the side with a shoulder. Not from behind as you claimed countless times as if to justify the ridiculous retaliation if you can actually call it that.

Nobody here is calling the former Ranger evil. But his actions were uncalled for then. And for him to get back in the Islander lineup in a meaningless preseason game and continue to take cheapshots igniting a brawl, it makes us lose respect for the guy.

As it is, I feel Simon is a solid player and can add a good element to any team. He’s got some ability to score a few goals too unlike most fourth liners. We got a chance to see that here where he fared well and won plenty of respect on Broadway.

When a character player resorts to cheapshots on another team no matter who it is or the situation, it changes the perception.

If he did that on our team, I’d be equally as appalled and want him off my team. There’s no place in this game for that shenanigans.

So, if you want to stick up for him because of what color jersey he wears, you’re more than welcome to. Just don’t expect myself or my co-blogger who’s brought a lot to the table to agree with you.

I’m way past the point of this being about what’s an entertaining and great bitter rivalry which is good for the game. This is about a player who screwed up. Plain and simple. Much like Donald Brashear and Marty McSorley and much like Todd Bertuzzi.

I am all for hard fought ultracompetitive games between our clubs and hopefully it won’t become as disgraceful tonight or in the meaningful eight this season as it was this past Monday at Nassau Coliseum.

If the situation is reversed and a Ranger does it, I’ll have no problem taking them to task.

Hope we are clear here.

Best of luck this season.

As for my one random thought, this is for Lepore:

If the Sabres miss the playoffs, I’ll walk from my home to the Verrazano Bridge.

Any chance Doc and Eddie have been talking too much to my crazed Buffalo friend Brian?

There’s no way that team misses. And that’s a guarantee!

P.S. Fedor Tyutin and Dan Girardi are higher on the depth chart than Paul Mara and highly anticipated Marc Staal.

I can’t believe we’re two days from seeing hockey again.

Hockey, I missed you.

After a Summer filled with Michael Vick, Tim Donaghy, Barry Bonds, Milton Bradley, Terrell Owens (I’m sure he did something), Donovan McNabb, Shawn Marion, Kevin Garnett, Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, David Beckham and a whole other load of crap that I’m sure I haven’t mentioned, I’m ready to love you again hockey.

So now, I present to you, 26 (in honor of Patrik Elias…sure that works out) reasons I’m excited about the NHL season.

1. We’ll start with rookies. Once Chicago leaves it’s current surrealist “I can’t believe I’m not running through the streets with bottles of tequila” state after the death of owner Bill Wirtz, they can get excited for Patrick Kane (hopefully) and Jonathan Toews (Who will manage 80 points this year, that’s my first garantee). However, of all the “super-rookies” each NHL blogger told me about during my series of SFM Previews (Keep reading), I think I’m excited more about Jack “MF” Johnson than any other.

2. Gretzky keeps aging. Have you ever looked at a photo of George W. Bush in the year 2000, and then compared it to a photo of him now? Check a pic of The Great One in 2005, and one of him in April 2008, after a 3rd season of the black hole of hopelessness that is Phoenix.

3. NHL Previews. Including mine, Greg Wyshynski, John Buccigross and others are able to entertain as well as inform. John’s for his ability to fill up my iPod. Greg’s for the fact that he listed Dainius Zubrus as “The Worst Excuse For a Player on the Washington Capitals” in 2005. There’s one I’ll never forget, Greg.

4. Zach Parise. I’m more excited than Ja Rule at a Focus on the Family meeting to see how ‘THE ZACH’ progresses in his third season in red and black.

5. New Uniforms. You know, the ones that will come in 08-09 after all the complaints about these ones.

6. Figuring out who has the best Top 4 defenseman in the Atlantic Division. It’s so hard to choose between Malik-Rozsival-Staal-Mara, Martin-White-Matvichuk-Vishnevski, Hatcher-Timmonen-Smith-Coburn, Gonchar-Sydor-Orpik-Whitney, or Witt-Bergeron-Sutton-Campoli. Man, good help is hard to find.

7. On a complete opposite note, Brodeur-Lundqvist-DiPietro-Fleury-Biron is more exciting than any other goalie fivesome in the league.

8. Guys like the super-human Greg Wyshynski, the entertaining Derek Felix, the incredible Paul Kukla, the hilarious Daryl Reaugh, the [thesaurus broken] Eric McErlain and all the guys at all the Battle sites and Fanhouse will be talking hockey again on a daily basis.

9. Versus continues it’s transition from “What’s that network?” to “That channel we tried to V-Chip”.

10. The Islander blog box. I’m jonesin’ for a Larry Brooks-Eklund showdown.

11. I’ll admit it…Sid the Young Gentleman and Alexander the Still Great are still reasons 1-25 to love hockey.

12. The Dallas Stars. Because you all know they’re one playoff-less season away from Willa Ford changing addresses.

13. Hockey-bashing newspaper columnists. They angry up the blood. Whenever I go to a game, I read about 6 or 7 columns from America’s greatest hockey-bashers (Kornheiser, Mariotti, Norman Chad, etc.) and watch Tim Cowlishaw get punished for talking hockey on Around the Horn, and frack I’m in the mood to yell and scream at The Rock that night.

14. More and more hockey references in pop culture. The Daily Show, CW’s “Reaper” and The Simpsons all featured some form of hockey reference on episodes this week. From Raffi Torres’ hilarious interview with Dan Bakkedahl on TDS, to the awesome Zamboni scene in Reaper (Watch it Thursday at 9, it’s legitimately shocking), to Homer’s Red Wings jersey (albeit in a parody of Feris Beuller), hockey’s becoming more acceptable - so much so that Mike Myers’ next movie is based in the world of pucks. Where apparently Justin Timberlake plays hockey, and Jessica Alba owns a team coached by Mini-me. But any press is good press, right?

15. The Northwest, Southeast, and Atlantic Divisions, where all five teams have some form of hope for a post-season bid.

16. The Sabres not making the playoffs. Both “Doc” Emrick and Kevin Greenstein have said this week that there is a very good shot it could happen, and I kinda believe them. Not really that exciting, just wanted to mention that somewhere.

17. The Florida Panthers. Could Tomas Vokoun do what Roberto Luongo couldn’t, making this team a playoff one for the first time since being trounced by NJD in 2000? True story…I had tickets to game 5 of that series. I was a heart-broken 11-year old, it was birthday gift to see playoff hockey. Of course, I did end up with tickets to a game in the Toronto series that year. But still…damn you Panthers!

18. Liveblogs. Oh, we’re going to do a bunch this year, trust me. And it won’t be just the 6 of us humble servants here.

19. The return to an All-Star Weekend. All-Stars on Tuesday and Wednesday just doesn’t seem right. Hopefully Atlanta does the game justice. L’il Jon performing the national anthem? I don’t think it can not happen.

20. My job at the Meadowlands paying for Devils tickets at The Rock. Mmmm…sleeping with the enemy.

21. My top 8 in the East and West
EAST: PIT, OTT, CAR, NYR, BUF, TB, NJ, PHI
WEST: ANA, VAN, DET, SJ, COL, MIN, LA, STL

Yeah, I have Calgary and Dallas (and Nashville) and Atlanta out. That’s the exciting part.

22. My Conference Champions: The Anaheim Ducks and The Pittsburgh Penguins

23. My Stanley Cup Champion: The Anaheim Ducks, in 7 Games

24. My Conn Smythe Trophy Winner: Sidney Crosby (Oh, you know it would totally happen).

25. My League MVP: Okay, so Crosby probably get it again. Who cares.

26. Beginning anew, hockey-wise, here in New Jersey. Let’s create something big, eh’ Devils fans? Don’t Stop Believin’.

The Devils beat the Isles 6-1 tonight at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Ma. Brian Gionta took Wade Dubielewicz to school 3 times on the game, while John Madden added a pair and Travis Zajac chipped in one.

Richard Park scored the lone Isles goal.

The teams meet again on Saturday in Bridgeport.

Here were the line combos tonight:

ISLANDERS
Goaltenders
34 Wade Dubielewicz
35 Joey MacDonald

Defensemen
4 Bryan Berard - 8 Bruno Gervais
14 Chris Campoli - 24 Radek Martinek
44 Freddy Meyer - 2 Aaron Johnson

Forwards
16 Jon Sim - 18 Mike Sillinger - 7 Trent Hunter
15 Jeff Tambellini - 29 Ben Walter - 57 Blake Comeau
20 Sean Bergenheim - 51 Frans Nielsen - 28 Tim Jackman
54 Gordie Dwyer - 10 Richard Park - 27 Darryl Bootland

NEW JERSEY
Goaltenders
30 Martin Brodeur
1 Frank Doyle

Defensemen
6 Andy Greene – 28 Karel Rachunek
2 Vitaly Vishnevski – 32 Mike Mottau
29 Johnny Oduya – 42 Matthew Corrente

Forwards
52 Nicklas Bergfors – 16 Dainius Zubrus – 14 Brian Gionta
9 Zach Parise – 19 Travis Zajac – 48 David Clarkson
11 John Madden – 49 Rod Pelley – 22 Arron Asham
17 Mike Rupp – 18 Sergei Brylin – 47 Barry Tallackson

I promise that won’t be the real name.

So far, myself, Patricia and Josh from 2 Man Advantage and John from In Lou We Trust will be discussing all the key issues surrounding the Devils, the Atlantic Division and the NHL on Thursday at 8pm. I’m not sure you’ll be able to watch it live, but a transcript will be posted on all 3 sites.

SO, I ask that you head to the comment section and submit some Q’s that we can give some A’s to.

Check out John Buccigross’ debut column of the year:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview2007/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=3036832

FSN NY is airing a Devils Season Preview tonight at 7PM till 8PM.

Everyone, a reminder. It’s just a game.

Devils won 3-1 on Monday. Nik Bergfors potted 2, Rod Pelley added the other goal and Brodeur played for the 1st time.

Devs take on the Islanders tonight in Lowell

There was no broadcast of the game again last night, but the Rangers lost 6-1 against the Detroit Red Wings. Henrik Lundqvist was again sub-par in his performance in net. Scott Gomez tallied the only goal for the Rangers on the powerplay from Jaromir Jagr in the 3rd period. This game was a little disheartening, even though it is only the preseason, because it was played with several more Rangers regulars in the lineup. Henrik obviously still has some summer rust to still shake off, Jagr and Gomez need to start clicking, and the Rangers defense needs to tighten up. We have two more preseason games left, as well as 10 or so more cuts to make. We’ll see what happens towards the end of the preseason.

Also, just to clarify a few things. I am a die-hard Rangers fan. Along with that, I despise the Islanders, Devils, Penguins and Flyers. It’s a rule. While many of my views and opinions will be pro-Rangers, I have no problem pointing out when a Ranger does something wrong. It was in my opinion that what Simon did to start the brawl on Monday was completely unnecessary and uncalled for. I had all the respect in the world for Simon before his baseball bat swing to Hollweg last year. I respect any guy that is willing to drop his gloves and protect his teammates. But not when it is from behind, with a stick, or in an unnecessary situation.

Rick DiPietro’s antics also came off as unnecessary. Sure he was caught up in the whole moment like the other 10 players on the ice, but it was even strength. There were five Rangers on the ice and five Islanders on the ice. When Strudwick and Orr jumped on Simon, which they probably shouldn’t have done, it is the job of the other skaters to separate that. Ricky D. jumping in made the sides uneven, forcing Montoya to come down. Montoya didn’t want to fight, and DiPietro baited him in, then saluted the crowd when it was over.

Ryan Hollweg plays hard. Does he play safe? Not all the time. Does he go out with the intent to injure? Not at all. He knows that he is a replaceable player in the NHL, and he needs to keep his energy up and keep the crowd going. He doesn’t do that with goals, and he’s not even all that good at fighting, but man, he can throw a big hit. Players who play as hard as he does will occasionally do something dangerous. When that time comes, it will be addressed. But Hollweg has never swung sticks at people, which I feel is a whole lot worse than what Hollweg is known for.

Again these are my views on things. I welcome a good debate, and will admit when I am wrong. But I would like to keep it as civil as possible when it comes to Rangers v. Islanders (which sometimes does include a brawl or two).